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Randi Rhodes - Bain Pains

by Randi Rhodesposted Aug 9 2012 5:46PM

A pro-Obama super-PAC put out an ad about a man who life was wrecked after his job was eliminated by Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital. Of course, everything in the ad was true, but the Romney people were still attacking it. Come to think of it, that’s probably the main reason they were attacking it.

Of course, since this is the Mitt Romney campaign, their response included a major gaffe. The only surprising thing is that the gaffe wasn’t made by Mitt Romney himself. Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said of the family in the ad, “If the people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s healthcare plan, they would have had healthcare.” Romney’s healthcare plan would have helped those people! That should be a point in Romney’s favor. But in the upside-down world of today’s Republican Party, it’s a major slam against him. Saul was essentially saying we would all be OK if we all just had a government-created health plan with an individual mandate. As Rick Perry would say—Oops! Good news and bad news, Andrea. The good news is that we’re in the process of implementing such a health plan for everyone! The bad news is that your candidate has vowed to eliminate it. Poor Andrea Saul was quite reasonably trying to use Mitt’s healthcare achievements in his defense. Well for hardcore conservatives Mitt’s healthcare record is not a defense—it’s an offense... a major offense, at that.

The rightwing punditry’s reaction to Andrea Saul’s comments was amazingly swift. I guess it’s possible to respond to things incredibly fast if you don’t have to take any to think first. Ann Coulter virtually exploded, at least in as much as someone with nothing inside of them can explode. Ann said “Anyone who donates to Mitt Romney, and I mean the big donors, ought to say if Andrea Saul isn’t fired and off the campaign tomorrow, they are not giving another dime.” When you’re talking about Romney donors, is it even necessary to specify “the big donors”? All Mitt Romney has is big donors. If all of Mitt’s small donors didn’t give him another dime, it wouldn’t cost him a dime. Really, Ann, if you want to contact all of Mitt’s donors—just send an email to Sheldon Adelson. If you can get him to threaten to cut off the money, Mitt will do whatever you want him to do.